How Much Content Do You Need?

When my mom taught me about makeup growing up, she stressed the “less is more” motto. Too much makeup can look cakey, fake and even clownish. Makeup isn’t supposed to mask your true beauty or be distracting; you wear it to enhance what you’ve got to show off, she would say.

The same rings true when it comes to content.

Constantly churning out content may not be the key to success. Giving your audience more doesn’t necessarily mean they want or need more, and may not result in more leads for you. Telling your audience over and over again that you’re the best may not be convincing enough (in fact, it’s almost certainly going to be really annoying).

In the U.S., where the culture often leans toward the “more is more” trend, this may seem puzzling; but the folks over at Eccolo Inc. did some digging that tells us more isn’t better when it comes to content.

According to volume two of the Eccolo Media 2015 B2B Technology Content Survey Report, quality reigns supreme over quantity. Essentially, the survey found that most technology buyers, from engineers to the C-suite, only consume two to five assets – or pieces of content – before they’re ready to make a purchase.

If you randomly select three to five of your assets, do you confidently think they will sell your brand or services? Will they effectively communicate who you are, what you have done and what makes you better than the rest?

If you’re putting your time and resources into producing a ton of content, you may be skimping on the quality of that content. And if the quality isn’t there, the whole purpose of producing content may be a moot point.

Instead of trying to produce more, focus on creating less content that kicks the quality up a few notches. As the Content Marketing Institute has said, the goal is to create “the minimum amount of content with the maximum amount of behavior change in our customers.” Placing your resources on quality content will help you rest assured that if a potential lead gets a hold of three to five of your assets, neither their nor your time will have been wasted.

So what does quality content mean? It means that instead of producing numerous pieces of content that explain how great your brand, deal or services are, or that say the same thing everyone else in your industry is saying, do something unique. Spend extra effort creating awesome content that will have greater impact. Deliver a data-backed insight that no one else has written about yet. Dive deep, using numbers, data, charts, and interviews to create content that isn’t a virtual carbon copy of what everyone else is doing.

So instead of bombarding your audience with a splash of content likened to the blue eyeshadow and red lipstick pairing, get creative, resourceful and take your time showing off what you can truly do for a potential lead.